Fictional Desserts

[rushthatspeaks]

For my birthday this year (end of August) I want to try to make some desserts that don't exist. However, I've spent the last several years cheerily making my favorite desserts that don't exist on various and sundry occasions-- my The Food Porn Was The Point Of The Redwall Books Cake is very good indeed.

sovay has already pointed out forty-two century butter-pie from Diana Wynne Jones' A Tale of Time City, and I have some ideas, kind of like a Baked Alaska in reverse, so that front is covered. But I think I will probably want more than one fictional dessert, and if I am lucky I would like to find one I can make edible for my friends who are vegan.

So tell me your favorite fictional desserts and where they come from, and when the time comes I shall make several of them-- an unspecified number; I don't know what I'll be up for-- and then I will put up the recipes for everyone. And then we will all have the recipes, and it will be a good thing.

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Butter-pie! Oooh!

Nine

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I am very much looking forward to trying butter-pie. I have several ideas of how to do it, so hopefully at least one of them will turn out not to be counter to the laws of physics.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

My first favorite dessert was in a fairy tale book I read, age eight. A king wanted a hot and cold dessert, and the clever young whatever made him a hot fudge sundae. I remember how my stomach growled, and I just knew if I ever got to taste one I would love it, too. And I did, a couple years later, and it was every bit as wonderful as I thought.

The second dessert I remember was Turkish delight from Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. The way that Lewis described it made it sound so delicious--I pictured it being like English toffee, which I had just once. (Candy was very, very rare at our house, as my mom didn't like wasting nickels on trash.)

Ages later, I finally had some offered me--took a bite--and nearly gagged. It was as disgusting as marzipan. Blurgh.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Fyi, there are lots of different kinds of loukoums, some of which taste much better than others.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I did not know that. Well, there are different kinds of chocolate, so that makes sense.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

The first I tried was in vending machine candy bar format, and it was bad. I also tried some in prepackaged boxes sold on store shelves, with different flavours, but that was generic and not especially fresh, and too rose-y in the rose flavour. The kind I remember most fondly was sold in the freshly prepared dessert counter section of a grocery store that has since closed. I used to buy a few pieces (covered in powder, with nuts inside them) in a bag I'd take along to eat at the cinema near to that grocery store.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

... it's possible to have too much rose-flavor? I don't believe you. But then I put shots of rose syrup in my tea.

Agreed that the best Turkish delight is fresh. And generally gets powdered sugar all over absolutely everywhere.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

I have tried hundreds of kinds, and some of them are ghastly and some of them are quite nice, but none of them are what Edmund ate in the snow, which is probably just as well, thinking about it.

I often take it to US conventions, because Lewis gave it such a good advance press there are always people who want to try it.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

The Narnian Turkish Delight is really amazing, isn't it? I have always liked even bad Turkish Delight-- I love marzipan, too, and will eat it straight-- but none of it is ever quite as good as that.

English toffee, mind you, is almost as good as that. Again, though, almost.

[octopedingenue]

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles has a magical ice cream machine I have had dreams about.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I have not read that. But I will posthaste, because magical ice cream machine is definitely a draw.

[octopedingenue]

Yes, read! It's one of my favorite foodie-books from elementary school. And it was written by Julie Andrews!

I am a terrible person.

[octopedingenue]

STARS TEARS.

Re: I am a terrible person.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Heeeeheeeheeeheee.

Re: I am a terrible person.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. Me too.

Re: I am a terrible person.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

... what is that from?

Re: I am a terrible person.

[octopedingenue]

James Tiptree Jr., who I only first read last year. I've heard it shows up in her novels as well, but I know Stars Tears from the short story "We Who Stole The Dream." There it's a delicious, intoxicating, eeeeeevil liquor that symbolizes humans' cruel decadence.

I am sure Stars Tears would make an excellent accompaniment to a dinner of tender veal in a foie gras sauce, with side dishes of ortolan and live lobster.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Gone-Away Lake:

"It's my belief that a fudge cake should be built," Mrs. Cheever said, "strong and thick, the way the Mexicans build adobe houses."

Nine

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Oh, good one. Especially as I'd have to make it with goats' milk, as I am sure she sends Pin into town for cocoa and flour but would not spend good money on cows' milk when they have milk and eggs at home.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Maple ambrosia, from Bujold's A Civil Campaign.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Actually I think the brand of maple yogurt we get is pretty much achieving that. But I could try and make it alcoholic.

[enegim.livejournal.com]

Ooh, butter-pies. I so want to taste those.

The first dessert I can remember reading about was when I was three or four. My father read me Thurber's Many Moons, in which the princess "fell ill of a surfeit of raspberry tarts," and I had the clear thought that I couldn't think of a nicer way to become ill.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I am definitely working out a butter-pie recipe.

I can't think of a nicer way to become ill either.

[chomiji]

The castle puddings with jam sauce that younger brother Donald wants so badly in one section of National Velvet have always intrigued me.

I think they may be like the ones in this recipe.

(Of course, once Donald has his, he just pokes at them and doesn't eat them.)

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Oh, that looks good. Thanks!

[marchharetay.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness what a great idea. Also, hm, my books of late have not been very filled with food...how odd.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I feel so unoriginal that I am very surprised no one has mentioned the bubbly pies of Dragonsinger. They've always sounded like ideal fair food. I know just how I would make them, actually, so I should do it myself when the blueberries come out.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

You should! And you should post how you do it!

[shahnasa.livejournal.com]

I've been in the Star Trek mood lately (thanks to the new movie, and SciFi's frequent STNG marathons). How about Ktarian Chocolate Puff?

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Ktarian_chocolate_puff

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

That... that is a thing of beauty. I am so there.

God only knows where I will get seventeen kinds of chocolate, but I will try.

[redbird]

Not exactly dessert, but rushwash tea (from Le Guin's "The Rule of Names").

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Good call, and I know she has a bit in one of her essays where she talks about the taste of it in very great detail, when she's talking about how she came up with it. I should find that. Thanks.

[octopedingenue]

I look forward to the butter-pie! IIRC I read assuming that the butter-pies were like a chess pie only more so.

I am so hungry now aaargh.